/vr/ - Retro Games

The only mod I would recommend for your first playthough would be a high resolution mod. Don't play any of the mods that combine Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 into a single game because it changes up way too much of the experience of the first game.

Also, it's based on AD&D2, so the lower your AC the better it is.

>>852630
OP, listen to this man. He knows what he speaks of.

Please don't play BG1 using the BG2 engine.. Just enjoy BG1 for the game it is.

I'm planning on replaying BG1 as a f/m/t solo

>>852630
>>852671
Why not the Enhanced Edition? I might be biased because I started with BGII (it was a gift from an oblivious parent) but the first game really has not aged well from a technical standpoint. I know that's kind of irrelevant here on /vr/, but...it's the same great experience either way, you know?

The better graphics are nice, but what I really prefer BGII/EE for is the gameplay stuff, classes and kits and so on. It's just a huge leap in terms of what you can do with your character.

Any tips on what kind of character to make? I tend to prefer Mage or Thief/Assassin characters, are they difficult to play?

Mages are weak to start with but become overpowered later.

>>852679
I'd rather experience a classic in its purest form, flaws and all.

>>852687
Not recommended for a beginner then, or are all classes viable?

>Are all of the classes viable?
Baldur's Gate is very easy so everything works. Tough it will be a bit harder if you use subpar classes like Bards, Druids, Ranger or Paladins.

>>852689

You're going to control a party of up to 6 characters.

Whatever class you pick will be balanced out by the party members you choose.

>>852693
Not OP and it was a long time ago but last time I tried to play Bauldur's Gate I got my ass raped by a swarm of Gibberlings. I'm not sure if I'm bad or just unlucky.

I remember having a party of 3-4 clerics and summoning skeletons to do all my battles and then running away in the other direction.

Surprisingly, this actually worked until the end of the game.

>>852697
Have you forgotten to give everyone a bow? Bows are acutally the highest damage dealing weapons of the game because they have twice as many attacks per round and you don't have to work to the enemies.

>>852702
I think I might have used bows but fuck my memory. I'll do the same as OP and play the game again.

>>852687
Mages do not become overpowered in BG1. Did you play vanilla BG1 or tutu/bgt/ee? in vanilla, they become powerful when it comes to support, but soloing w/ a mage in BG1 is much more difficult to do than w/ the other classes. the classes in BG1 are surprisingly balanced

>>852709
The haste spell in vanilla BG1 doubles the number of attacks each round instead of just adding one attack like in tutu/bgt/ee. This makes mages OP as fuck, tough there is no reason to have more than one mage.

>>852701
>Have clerics make a skeleton army.
>Summon monsters with a mage.
>Haste everyone.
>Run around firing arrows at everything.

Congratulations! (The final battle was still interesting though, given that your summons can be countered with fireballs).

>>852949
Seems like most people end up being wimps and just using the trick to pull Sarevok alone for the final battle, though.

It's kind of crazy how strong consumable items were in BG1. Wands of monster summoning get you 12HD of creatures, same as the level 4 spell Monster Summoning II, except without having to waste what are at the time high level spell slots. Also, the greater relative strength of giant strength potions in a game with only the gauntlets of ogre power for passive buffing, rather than the multiple girdles of BG2.

Long-duration potions stacking made for some crazy increases; if we take as a baseline a level 8 Khalid, with 15 STR and thus no bonuses to hit or to damage, 17 CON for +3HP per level (for a maximised 8d10+24 or 104HP), and 16 DEX for -2 AC. We feed him a potion of storm giant strength (24 STR for 10 turns,) a potion of power (+20% THAC0, HP and thief skills for 4 turns,) and a potion of agility (18 DEX for 15 turns,) he turns into a combat monster. Compared to unbuffed, he's got +9 THAC0 (+6 from strength, +3 from the potion of power reducing his base THAC0 from 13 to 10), +12 damage (all strength,) goes up to 124 or 125HP depending on rounding, and has 2 points better AC as well.

And that's before you get into other defensive items like potions of regeneration - 2HP per round for 30 rounds, or potions of absorbation granting you +10AC against crushing attacks as well as lightning immunity or any of the super strong magic resistance, immunity or saving throw bonus potions. It's quite telling that BG2 basically added no new buffing potions, because the ones you could use from super early levels are still viable, just less absurd, at higher levels.

>>853059
BG1 starts to seem really insignificant really quickly when you've got a level 40 party in BG2 ToB that pretty much goes around fighting gods for kicks

>>855620
I was actually genuinely disappointed that there really wasn't any support for high-level stuff past like level 25.

>>855625
No eleventh level spells for wizards
No ninth level spells for clerics
High level fighter feats were really underwhelming

>>855630
I think the fact that they included even the tenth level wizard and eighth level cleric spells was pretty cool
but yeah, high level fighter was pretty much grinding to get as many uses of Hardiness and Maximized Whirlwind as possible

>>855625
AD&D already breaks after like level 15. Going past 20 is stupid, which is part of the reason that Throne of Bhaal sucks. Aside from the terrible new-Bioware style story structure and ultra-linear design, that is.

>>855625
You realize that this was based on 2nd Edition D&D, right? There just wasn't support for stuff that powerful back then.

Now we've got D&D 5e coming out soon with all sorts of wacky wavy Level 100 sourcebooks AND BEYOND LEL

>>855652
And the game is still pretty unbalanced beyond level 6. I mean if Neutrino Golem wankfests is how you wanna play, cool, but E6 is the best incarnation I've used D&D successfully.

>>852689

I would recommend playing as a human and dual class, which lets you start as a beefy class (fighter or ranger) and then move into a spellcasting class. fighter into cleric and ranger into cleric are both good. if you want to be evil, fighter into cleric.

Sort of related - how do you guys feel about Icewind Dale 1 and 2?

How does it compare BG2? I just bought them on GOG since they were cheap and was wondering if they're really worth playing

>>859759
Roleplaying opportunities are more limited, the combat is generally considered to be better. Lots of snow. I'd play them.

For the most part the plot sort of railroads you, but there are certain points in the story where you're presented with several choices in how to tackle the next section of the game (the Bandit Camp in particular) and of course there are shittons of outdoor areas for you to explore and take all manner of sidequests in. Also, the difficulty of the final battle and how many opponents you will face to a small extent depends on your actions throughout the game.

Unfortunately being evil won't give you much of a leg up in this game; quite the opposite actually. Being "evil" entails maintaining a low reputation score to keep your evil NPC party members happy, and comes with such benefits as:

- Seriously hiked-up shop prices
- Random Flaming Fist bounty hunters that attack you

On the plus side, most of the more useful evil NPCs are available from the very start (Edwin, Montaron, Kagain, Shar-Teel)

>>861094
Is it better to play good the first time?

>>861382

Definitely. Evil route is fun, but the nature of evil route changes the experience a bit. You can't do as many side quests because your evil allies wont like your reputation getting too high and generally frown upon you helping each other. Also evil allies will fight your good allies

>>852625
1 the game is bad , i still can't understand why people prize it
2 get warriors clerics and 1 mage only. Casters suck because the cap is like lvl 10
3 the game is horribly balanced in anything but easy almost everything 2 shots you
4 the game is pretty much a killing fest not an RPG
5 If you see enemies in a zone are too hard then come back later there is nothing you can do
6 if there are casters and you don't have enough Hp you gonna die in 3hits
7 If the enemy buffes you can try to run away rest and go back , he won;'t be able to rebuff
8 the game sucks

>>861653
>Evil route is fun, but the nature of evil route changes the experience a bit
There isn't an evil route, there is be nice and finish the quest or kill/steal which finish the quest right there and you only get money or some shit item

I was in the same boat a few months ago. I play tabletop, but holy dicks 2E is confusing.

Find online resources and play in windowed mode, is my main piece of advice. The dudleyville walkthrough might be a bit intensive, so maybe look for something spoiler free? Use the PlayItHardcore wiki for character building. Few sites actually spell out what you gain at each level.

My favourite party members in Badurs Gate are the evil ones (Xzar, Montaron, Edwin... Kagain can be pretty boss too if you give him a CON tome early), and really I wouldn't hesitate to play evil. Alignment mainly concerns the way your PC develops, gaining special powers and dream sequences due to your evil-god ancestry. The evil path is pretty cool. Don't be mistaken though, with a few exceptions your "choices" are "who you travel with" and "do the quest or not". Your alignment will be more a measure of your ruthlessness than what team you're on. Also read up on the way reputation works. It's a pain. I ended up low rep by accident in my first (accidental) evil playthrough. Minsc beserked through half of Nashkel inn, cutting down noncombatants, then chastising me for the loss in reputation.

As for classes, what are you interested in? Considering the size of the party it doesnt really matter, but one thing to keep in mind is that when the MC dies you have to reload, so a mage with their tiny HP pool can be pretty awful without the right buffs.

Oh and uh, your rogues take a HUGE penalty to stealth if it isn't pitch dark. That's why Hide in Shadows keeps failing. Try to do your stealthing at night or just use invisibility potions for your backstabbing needs. You can buy them when you reach Baldurs Gate.

>>861882
dude . kagain is boss even if you don't give him a tome. he's the single best tank among all the npcs. give him the gauntlets of dexterity which you get very early in the game, and the warhammer +2. his health regeneration is better than anything else any other frontline npc can offer

>>852679
>Enhanced Edition
madotsukivomiting.jpg

Just use Weidu if you want that. Hell, know what I'd like? BG Trilogy running in the Icewind Dale 2 engine. (Engine, not the rules, oh God not the rules)

>>861905
Holy shit, I was under the impression that he had 19 CON, not 20 (I'm not sure if it's tutu or just me being retarded)

Kagain is amazing get on that shit OP

>>861937
>Icewind Dale 2 engine

There is a difference between the IWD2 and BG2 engine?

>>861982
Subtle things, but mostly the interface which I find to be much nicer to look at.

>>861937
http://weidu.org/iwg2/
Check this shit out. It's been pretty much abandoned but it would have been fucking awesome. Supposedly the beta works for the most part but I'd imagine there's a fair share of bugs.

>>861937
The rules? Like the hackneyed in 3E sneak attack and such? (Should I play with these? They sounded awful)

>>861943
Some mods change the illegal values that several NPCs have, such as Coran's 20 DEX. Though I've not seen one that changes stats that are illegally low; Minsc shouldn't actually be able to be a ranger with his wisdom, since rangers have a minimum of 14.

>>852625

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS:
the LOWER armor class the better

You may not believe it, but I finished EOB1 with as high AC as I could get, because I though it works "normally".

Fuck, I hate D&D.

>>852630
>>852671

i would disagree, i dont see any downside to using BGTutu to put everything in the BG2 engine. adds lots of options and generally makes the interface better. though dual wielding is a bit OP for BG1 and makes the game quite a bit easier in my opinion.

for the OP:

-any class ultimately works. avoid multiclassing/dual classing if you want to level more quickly

-that being said, mage is one of the tougher classes to start out as in BG1, since in AD&D level 1 characters are already extremely underpowered, and as a mage you will be borderline useless for quite some time.

-potions and wands are awesome and extremely useful, you'll find lots of them, and you shouldnt be afraid to use them.

-ranged weapons make the game way easier, but either way you should have a range for most if not all of your party.

Wizards and archers